Lovesick
by Agent Ninety-Nine
Summary: Is it really possible to fall in love over the Internet? When Izzy meets Willis in the flesh, will he live up to expectations? And will he return Izzy’s feelings for him?
1. So Wired

"I have to ask you to turn off your laptop now, sir. We're about to begin the descent into Washington." The stewardess smiled at the young Japanese with his serious eyes and shock of brown hair. 

"Sure. Sorry." Izzy clipped his screen shut and tucked the Pineapple under his seat. He pulled the lever that brought his seat back up to vertical and fastened the seatbelt around his small waist. As the 747's nose dipped he swallowed hard to stop his ears popping and stared alertly out of the window at the city looming beneath the plane. 

He couldn't believe he was finally going to meet Willis. Willis, the American computer genius whose hacking had created the virus Digimon Infermon. As Infermon's presence on the Internet spread, slowing traffic and blocking important sites, Izzy and Tai had fielded e-mail from concerned kids all over the world. Izzy had noticed Willis immediately for his articulate, detailed comments, realising that the American boy's knowledge of computers and Digimon rivalled his own. 

He had tried mailing Willis several times after that, but always an Undeliverable bounced back. Then the younger Digi-Destined had actually met Willis, over in the USA. The virus he created had infected his own Digimon, Kokomon, and he had needed the help of all the Japanese Digi-Destined to stop the rampaging monster. When the crisis was over Izzy received a long message telling the whole story of Infermon's creation. Ashamed of what he had done, Willis had avoided contacting Izzy so the truth wouldn't have to come out. 

_I'm a rat, Izzy. I'm sorry._ he had ended. 

Izzy wrote back immediately: _It wasn't your fault, Willis! Nobody knows much about Digimon yet; we've all made mistakes._ He paused and added: _Let's learn together._

This time they stayed in touch, e-mailing once a week or so. Izzy found himself looking forward to Willis' correspondence more and more, till he began crossing his fingers every time he checked his mail. When he saw the American's name in his inbox his heart jumped. This kid was bursting with theories and questions, fuelling Izzy's own thirst for knowledge. Answering Willis' mail was more challenging than a chess puzzle - and Izzy _loved_ chess puzzles. Willis made him think in a way that none of his other friends did. 

One day he had burst in on Matt, TK and Yolei over at Matt's, desperate to find another Digi-Destined to share Willis' latest discovery.   
"Hey guys!" he yelled, waving a printout. "Guess what Willis just found out!" 

They looked up, surprised by this interruption from the normally quiet Izzy.   
Yolei rolled her eyes. "Haven't we heard enough about your _boyfriend_ lately?" she asked. Matt sniggered. "Yeah, Izzy, you're getting really obsessed." 

Only TK leaned forward and said "What?" But Izzy didn't answer. Yolei's bitchy comment was still echoing in his ears. Willis...boyfriend...it was _true_. Izzy was in love with Willis. 

This was crazy. He'd never even met Willis. But in a way he knew him better than any of the other Digi-Destined. He knew how he thought and what he felt. Willis didn't give much away about his personal life, but sometimes when they instant messaged he let slip little details: his love of basketball, his unhappy childhood. 

Izzy remembered a late night with Joe when his friend, slightly drunk, had spent an hour detailing his precise feelings for Mimi. The Digi-Destined of Sincerity had left for the USA, and Joe's life had been misery ever since. Constantly thinking about her; desperate for a letter; anxious if he didn't hear from her. The symptoms matched Izzy's feelings for Willis exactly. 

"Oh, nothing," he said quietly, and trailed out. TK glared at Yolei. "Nice going!" he snapped. He slipped down from his perch to follow Izzy, but Matt took his arm. "Leave him," he said. "He'll get over it. He's _Izzy_." 

Izzy booted up his computer and went straight to a search engine. Willis' surname was a common one in North America, but by adding keywords he soon thinned out the crowd and homed in on _his_ Willis. There he was on his high school's website - smiling in the front row of his basketball team photo, a Band-Aid on one knee. Again, receiving his diploma years early, a slight blond figure among much older boys. Here was his college thesis, which Izzy bookmarked for later perusal; here a blurry shot on another student's homepage, showing Willis among a group of friends. Willis himself didn't seem to have a personal webpage, which was surprising; Izzy had reserved izumi.jp years ago. 

_Am I gay, then?_ Izzy wondered suddenly, his fingers frozen over the keyboard. He remembered boys at his primary school, the ones who'd given him Chinese burns when the teacher wasn't looking, chanting in the playground: "Izzy's a nerd! Izzy's gay!". Well, he was a self-declared nerd; were they right about the other thing too? He'd never been attracted to a guy before, but then he'd never been that interested in girls either. Though until today he wouldn't have recognised Willis if they'd crossed in the street, he had fallen in love with him. He knew if Willis had been a girl he would have felt the same way. It wasn't a question of gay or straight; it was the person that counted. 

Izzy shook his head. Only he, of all the Digi-Destined, could have fallen for someone he only knew through the Internet. 

* * *

**To Be Continued...**


	2. In the Thick of It

Izzy, always the gentlest and most peaceable of the Digi-Destined, more so even than Joe, became a different person over the next few weeks. He was snappy and sarcastic, and more withdrawn than he had ever been. 

One evening he was in the computer lab at his old school, installing a firewall on the server. Normally he was pleased and honoured to help out his former teachers, but today he was itching to get home and check his mail and the problem at school was an unwelcome delay. He found himself unable to lose himself in the computer as he usually did, and tapped his fingers impatiently while the software uploaded. 

Cody was sitting at one of the terminals, Upamon snuggled in his jacket, waiting to open the Digi-Port and cross over into the digital world. He watched with his usual bright-eyed curiosity as Izzy fiddled. Then he asked a question. 

"Leave me the hell alone!" Izzy snapped back. Without looking, he flapped his hand as if swatting a fly and caught the younger boy across the cheek. Cody fled, choking back tears of shock and anger. Next to Grandpa and his late father, Izzy was the person he looked up to most. His rejection hurt solemn little Cody to the centre of his soul. 

Everyone noticed Izzy's behaviour; no one could explain it. He was a closed book, an enigma. He insisted that nothing was wrong, and indeed there seemed to be nothing in his life that could possibly upset him so. His college work was fine, he had a loving family. He had been offered placements at any number of companies after he graduated, so the future was secure. But his friends' enquiries into whether anything was bothering him met with a stone wall. 

The group was too strongly knit to abandon one of their number, even if he or she were being a jerk (in Tai's words). In the years they had known each other almost everyone had been through their personal difficult patch, and the rest of the team had always provided shoulders to lean or cry on. But there was a concensus among the Digi-Destined to leave Izzy in peace - not ignoring him or leaving him out of their plans and discussions, but letting him keep his privacy - until he came to them. They had seen him despondent before and knew that he always wanted to work out his own problems by himself, painful as it might be for those who loved him to watch. It was part of his character, as bearer of the Crest of Knowledge. 

Tentomon alone knew what was troubling Izzy and he kept his mandibles firmly shut, only wishing he were there in the physical universe to help his friend. 

_I want to hold him close._ Izzy wrote to his Digimon partner in one of his less and less frequent e-mails. _I want to talk for hours, and share jokes and laugh. Me! Can you imagine it?_

Tentomon mailed back: _That's love? Then, Izzy, I guess I love you. I wish you the best of luck._

Izzy was comforted a little by this. Whatever else he might lose, the bond between boy and monster was unbreakable. But he had reached the stage of his Great Fear: did Willis feel the same way as he did? Might he, in time? If he didn't, could they still be friends? He was afraid to tell Willis, but if he didn't he felt as if he might explode. And then, telling him too early, too late or at a bad moment might wreck everything. It felt to Izzy as though he were in chemistry class stirring a highly volatile mixture that needed exactly the right amount of the right ingredient added at the right time. 

He had tried to apply logic, but love and logic seemed to be incompatible. Logically, if he and Willis were so similar and thought so much alike, the probability was high that Willis' thoughts and feelings were akin to his own. But it was equally logical to assume that a blond sports star like his American friend would have a girlfriend. If that was the case, though, wouldn't he have mentioned her? Izzy sighed; his thoughts were going round and round like a programming loop. With all this going on in his head, small wonder he daydreamed his way through class and snapped at his friends. 

He had even tried to convince himself that this was a simple adolescent crush. Izzy's heroes and role models were all men and women of intelligence; in the third grade he had followed his science teacher around like a little dog begging for treats, until he overheard her telling another teacher how Ôcute' he was. That crush had melted fast. 

Willis was smart and brave. He was an excellent programmer and a logical thinker. It would be natural for someone like Izzy to develop a crush on him. But crushes were usually on remote idols - your teachers, older kids, then later sports players or musicians. You got a crush on someone you barely knew, and became disenchanted when you learned more about them. That wasn't the case with Willis. Izzy knew his character inside out, and he loved every bit of it. Puppy love? Not a chance. This was the real thing. 

If only he could meet Willis in person! How wonderful, and terrifying, that would be. Izzy was no great judge of character; he was too much of a recluse for that. But he was sure that if he searched Willis' face and voice for clues he would find some scrap of information to help him decide how Willis felt. Besides he longed just to see him, to add the sound of his voice and the way he looked to his private store of Willis-knowledge. 

And if it didn't work out? Maybe Willis would dislike him on sight - maybe he would dislike Willis. Would Izzy even have the guts to meet up with his closest friend, after years of online correspondence? He had no idea. But he wished he could be given the chance to find out. 

"Izzy! Phone call!" Her son had been 'Izzy' for so long that even Mrs Izumi habitually called him by his nickname. "An American boy." Izzy's heart hit the roof of his mouth, but he had American friends at college. He mustn't allow himself to get too excited. Nevertheless he ran down the hall, skidding the last few metres in his sock feet. 

"Hello?"   
"Um, Izzy? Is that you?" 

It was him. It had to be. There was the faint time-delay echo of an international connection, and the voice belonged to someone of the right age. Willis had phoned him up all the way from America! Could it be true? What did he want? 

"Hello? Izzy?" 

"Sorry...Willis? I was thinking." Izzy said carefully, holding the receiver as though it might bite.   
"Typical. Your thinking is costing me a buck a minute." There was a friendly laugh behind the complaint that told Izzy beyond all doubt that it was his friend; he spoke just as he wrote.   
"And yeah, it's me. Who else would want to call you from the States?" Willis confirmed. "Hey, listen. This is going to sound a bit weird, but is there any way you can come and see me? There's something I need to talk to you about and I don't want to do it online." 

Izzy sat down cross-legged, one hand to his head. His wish had been granted. He was going to meet Willis! In five minutes he had gone from desperate to ecstatic. It was all too much. 

"Izzy? Quit the silent treatment! Next time, _you_ call _me_."   
Izzy apologised again, stuttering. "Sure I'll come. When?" 

Together they hashed out a plan. Spring break was starting soon for both boys, and Willis was going to be alone in his apartment. He had said a friend was coming from Japan; his parents assumed it was one of the kids he had met on vacation, the younger Digi-Destined. ("They'd freak if I said it was someone I met on the Net!" Willis confessed.) Izzy could easily afford the flight, since he had had a summer job at Nintendo the previous year and had saved all he earned. So Izzy was going to the USA for a week. He was shaking as he put the phone down. 

"Are you sure this is a good idea, darling?" his mother asked. "You've never met this Willis. How do you know he's not a pervert or a murderer?" 

Izzy laughed out loud. "Mom! Of course he's not. And I know him almost as well as I know you and Dad." 

She frowned at this, finding it difficult to believe, but Izzy's wide, dark eyes were full of confidence and determination. "Well, OK then. But be careful. And ring us every night."   
"I promise," Izzy said happily, hugging his mother. 

He was nervous, of course. Soon he would have to tell Willis everything. And what was it Willis wanted to tell him? Surely not that he was in love with Izzy. That was too much to ask. Izzy burned with impatience and curiosity. But things were moving at last, and he shed his depression straight away. Just as things had got better for the Digi-Destined once they decided to confront the Dark Masters outright, so Izzy's mood lightened now his meeting with Willis was fixed and inevitable. He could not put things off any longer; something had to happen. 

He told his friends about the forthcoming trip, and was so cheerful and happy that from then until the day of his departure he was everyone's favourite friend. He was talkative, almost hyper. Pizzas were on him. Most important of all, he sought out Cody on his own and apologised manfully. The night before he left, the two boys hugged goodbye with more affection than ever before. 

"I guess Izzy just needed a change of scene," Joe shrugged. "Hey, I wonder if he'll be able to meet up with Mimi?" 

"You're ob_sessed_, man!" Tai yelled, giving him a shove. And Izzy's mysterious behaviour was forgiven and forgotten. 

His suitcase had disappeared along the conveyor belt and he had only his laptop as hand luggage. Izzy reached up to kiss his mom's cheek, then trotted off towards the departure lounge. With a last wave over his shoulder, he had disappeared. 

"Our little boy, off to America!" Mrs Izumi sighed. "Such a big place."   
Her husband put his arm round her shoulder. "Izzy's been to a whole other dimension. I'm sure he can cope with the States. Come on - I'm double-parked." 

* * *

**To Be Continued...**


End file.
